Conner Eases Rules For Grove Replanting

November 27, 1985|By Adam Yeomans and Jerry Jackson of The Sentinel Staff

HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS — Florida Agriculture Commissioner Doyle Conner Tuesday announced a change in canker-eradication rules that could speed up replanting of freeze-damaged groves in the state.

Conner rejected a recommendation made earlier this month by an advisory committee that called for a half-mile-wide buffer for grove owners who wished to replant but could not get written permission from neighboring grove owners.

Conner said a 125-foot-wide buffer should be adequate to protect groves against canker while allowing neighboring citrus acreage to be replanted.

As a result, grove owners no longer will be required to get neighbors' permission before planting new trees in solid blocks, as long as they maintain a 125-foot-wide buffer around their property. Growers must get planting permits, however, from state canker project officials in Winter Haven.

Conner's decision is expected to open the way for more rapid replanting of the freeze-stricken citrus-growing region in north Central Florida. About 200,000 acres of citrus were damaged by freezes in December 1983 and January 1985.

''I think you will be able to start rehabilitation programs here in the very near future,'' Conner told 450 people attending the annual meeting of Golden Gem Growers Cooperative in Lake County.

Florida Citrus Mutual, the state's largest growers' organization, has taken no position on the buffer-zone requirement. But a spokesman for the Lakeland-based trade association said Tuesday that Conner's announcement will mean more acres replanted sooner, speeding the industry's recovery from the freezes.

Ernie Neff, a Mutual spokesman, said, ''Hundreds, if not thousands, of additional acres can most likely be planted without that half-mile requirement.''

John Kennedy, a Umatilla-area citrus grower and an executive with Golden Gem, said getting signed permission from neighbors before replanting would have given property owners regulatory veto power over planting of others' groves. ''It would have been an unfair burden,'' Kennedy said. ''Some property owners might not have signed permission for their neighbors, for reasons that had nothing to do with canker.''